Big trout. Cooler with beer. Comfy seat.

 

Wait, did you mean "as opposed to gear fishing on lakes?"

 

Yep! Post edited to clarify.

 

That’s an odd question. I’d say the same benefits apply across most fisheries; If you like to cast flies, you can be very effective on lakes...And rivers, the salt, etc. A practical benefit might be access to the handful of fly fishing only lakes around the state.

 

out fishing your gear fishing buddies

 

I haven't done a whole lot of fly fishing for trout in lakes (lots for bass, though). I'm getting into it more now. The thing I'm liking best is learning new things about the natural history of trout and the things they eat.

Learning about thermoclines and how water boatmen can fall like rain is just cool.

Plus, as Ratty says in Wind in the Willows, "There is nothing so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

I enjoy fishing with flies (and tying them) more than fishing with gear. Whatever the waterbody.

 

I fished a selective gear lake for years with gear.
I now fish that same lake with flies.
I catch more and bigger fish with flies than I ever did with gear.
So to break it down to practical maters, you catch more fish fly fishing.
Plus of course you look cooler casting a fly rod.

 

To those who mentioned that they catch bigger fish and a larger quantity, why is that?

 

I think a fish is more apt to eat something that looks natural and is what they are used to eating/seeing. Leeches for a example just look fishy-

Compare that to gear tackle. Which looks like nothing natural in the lake-

Err, Um, wait...
Disregard what I said above. It's probably all bs because I catch a lot of fish on this "fly"-

Also, don't hate on my gear selection. There is no way I'm showing you guys and gals my good spinners and spoons.

 

We fly fishers never stretch the truth.......only been at it for 55 years.

 

Practically, go fly fishing on a lake with someone who knows there shit and you'll notice the guy or girl fishing flies out fishes the gear guys substantially on the reg. Example, this summer I fished a Westside lake with my 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter, they each only caught a couple dinks. Certainly nothing to write home about. I, on the other hand destroyed them. Huge fish, repeatedly. I concluded based on that single (not in anyway anecdotal experience) that gear fishing lakes is for losers.

Also, some good lakes are fly fishing only.

 

This summer I fished a Westside lake with my 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter, they each only caught a couple dinks. Certainly nothing to write home about. I, on the other hand destroyed them. Huge fish, repeatedly. I concluded based on that single (not in anyway anecdotal experience) that gear fishing lakes is for losers.

Part of me wants to call CPS, the other part is nodding along in agreement....

 

If nothing else, it's a great alternative during spring runoff.

 

Sorry for the lengthy response...

Fishing lakes is an entirely different than fishing streams and creeks. I am truly a small creek or stream fisherman for sure. There is nothing like a trout taking a dry fly and watching a trout take that fly. With the flow of the water plus the trout is exhilarating for sure! A 5 lb. brown in a swift creek is NEVER like trout from a lake.

I was fishing Fish Lake near Lworth with gear. I started using a fly and caught twice as many fish. I fished Rattlesworm lake and had fisherman following me and cussing because I am catching twice as much as them and releasing them! They were following me and I was catching fish 5' in front of their boats using a fly near their hardware. They were pissed to say the least.

YES you will catch larger fish versus hardware fisherman, without a doubt, BUT it is not the same experience as fishing a stream!

I live on a small lake with great fishing for sure! I can tell by the strike whether it is a 16", 18", 20" fish. Yet I am surprised when a "runaway freight train" attacks a fly aka 'fish on!'. The largest trout I caught was 31". Yet I am bored with lake fishing. I invite people over to the lake I live on to make memories. Check out my other posts...

I was fishing Rocking Chair Creek and the MT Fishing group wanted all fish kept in a slot limit. A first for me so I complied. I took the fish to a local fish restaurant and gave it to them. WAY more than I could eat. The chef cooked them his way and it feed all of of his staff. My dinners were free for several nights...

If you want good tasting fish, catch them from a cold stream. Fish in lakes, especially from EWA, are muddy tasting at best!

 

This could get interesting.

 

Flies are clean and easy to use.

Rigging a worm or other baits is sometimes messy.

I will say a well presented worm or other natural baits will produce many fish and big fish.

 

Sometimes the practicality of fishing lakes is simply geographical. Here in the "real" Eastern Washington-about 20 miles from Idaho-there is a dearth of running water but a multitude of lakes. In what few streams there are a 16'' fish would be a rarity and you will probably have to walk a long way to find it. On the other hand there are many lakes that will produce 16-20'' trout on a regular basis with the occasional 22-24'' fish to sweeten the pot. In addition twenty to thirty fish days are relatively common.

I started fishing streams at age 13 and have probably walked over 1,000 miles fishing them over the years, learned to read the water, got good at it and loved every minute of it. July 28, 2021 will be my 70th anniversary of fly fishing and now as an old man the lakes are a blessing. Sitting in a comfortable pontoon boat with food and drink at hand, multiple rods, rain gear and a good depth finder is about as good as it gets at this age. I still fish the local creeks for small fish and Freestone and I had an outstanding time brush busting some nearby streams last year.

In stream fishing the obvious lies are popular and get fished over day after day so you need your A game to produce on those waters. And some simply get fished out. Lakes on the other hand demand a broader perspective as productive water is not so easily spotted. The challenge is to first find the fish then get them interested in your offerings. Therein lies the mystery and charm of fishing lakes.

This year I am taking the Lay-Z-Boy nature of pontoon fishing to another level by adding a trolling motor with a PWM controller for the bigger lakes. No more 2 hour slogs back to the put in...

 

When I was in the 10-13 year old range I started really getting excited about fly fishing. Casting was fun and the big thing was I did not have to spend my allowance money on a new jar of power bait or new lure every time I wanted to go fishing. I could grab the single fly box of hand tied flies and go fishing. So I guess in summary the original draw for me was the overall lack of equipment needed.

As time has gone on, i find myself more in tune with what is happening in the lake. Trying to watch for hatches and other feeding patterns. Trying different flies that I have tied with different materials and watching for results. Seems that fly fishing has been a more difficult endeavor but more rewarding then aimlessly dragging a lure around a lake.

At the end of the day, with a fly or lure just get out there!

 

When I began fly fishing, the immediate practical benefit was that I consistently caught more fish than when I fished bait and lures for trout in lakes. It could have been because fly fishing was a better approach to presenting something to trout that they wanted, or that I was a pretty lousy bait fisherman, or most likely, a combination of both. I think fly fishing makes the angler think more about what he is doing and why he is doing it. The more one gets into fly fishing for trout, the more of a biologist and ecologist the angler becomes. And that leads to greater success in fishing most of the time.

I was so positively impressed with my relative success in fly fishing for trout, that I branched out and tried fly fishing for steelhead in rivers, assuming I could replicate my fly fishing success for trout. Boy, was that ever a stupid assumption - but that's another story.

Fly fishing for trout in lakes provided so much positive reinforcement in terms of catch, that I never bothered fishing with bait and spinning gear for them again.

 

Practical? There's nothing (this is just my opinion) practical about fly fishing lakes versus gear fishing lakes. Matter of choice, for me, a personal preference. A bunch of guys above me claim they catch more fish in lakes fly fishing than gear fishing. Maybe so, sometimes (most of the time?). I love to fish, I have no aversion to baiting a hook or pitching a spoon or spinner but I do prefer fly fishing.

There's a big lake up north, @triploidjunkie can see if from his house. Once a year or so a bunch of us old retired farts get together and drown worms and multiple flavors of powerbait trying to catch trout. Honestly, I've always done better harling a fly on Lake FDR than I have drowning worms.

 

For me, there's one clear advantage (at times) to fishing gear.

Room to cast.

The only time I fish lakes at all are while backpacking. So I don't have a boat, pontoon, or belly boat. So depending on what the shore looks like, I may have very minimal casting opportunities. If the lake has a gradual drop off, I can wet wade out a bit, but thats out of the cards if I'm trying to fish ice out. When I go with my buddy who casts spinning gear, he has a much easier time casting, and can cast pretty much the entire lake where I tend to get pigeon holed into certain areas. Subsequently, he can often get into fishier sections of said lakes and usually out-fishes me. BUT. said lakes generally produce pretty well with big dries, so the fun factor of fishing top water, outweighs his spinner fish IMO.

 

For me, there's one clear advantage (at times) to fishing gear.

Room to cast.

The only time I fish lakes at all are while backpacking. So I don't have a boat, pontoon, or belly boat. So depending on what the shore looks like, I may have very minimal casting opportunities. If the lake has a gradual drop off, I can wet wade out a bit, but thats out of the cards if I'm trying to fish ice out. When I go with my buddy who casts spinning gear, he has a much easier time casting, and can cast pretty much the entire lake where I tend to get pigeon holed into certain areas. Subsequently, he can often get into fishier sections of said lakes and usually out-fishes me. BUT. said lakes generally produce pretty well with big dries, so the fun factor of fishing top water, outweighs his spinner fish IMO.

Slap a 175 grain OPST head on your backcountry fly rod and your life will never be the same.

No backcast room? No problem. Still able to fire a 50 foot rocket with a flick of the wrist...with a 4 weight!

That's been my go-to alpine lake setup for a while now and holy cow is it a game-changer. Can even toss a floating tip on it and fish dries waaaayyyy out in the lake.

I used to decorate the shrubs and bushes lining lakes throughout the Cascades, but those days are no more.

 

Watching fishing shows on TV during the pandemic, I have heard several professional gear folks remark how much fun it is to watch a fish take a surface lure. I found that out years ago fishing flies.

 

I was spoiled to have a great teacher who would set me up with a spinning rod, casting bobber and fly at a young age. I think I was 8 when he put me in a float tube with that setup, so I figured out early fish ate flies that imitated their diet more so than “bait”. Being we have more lakes than rivers over here, it’s what we fished. Out fishing the gear users was a byproduct. Boat fishing was, and still is,trolling big water with leaded line or sinking fly line, but always with flies.

 

I was spoiled to have a great teacher who would set me up with a spinning rod, casting bobber and fly at a young age. I think I was 8 when he put me in a float tube with that setup, so I figured out early fish ate flies that imitated their diet more so than "bait". Being we have more lakes than rivers over here, it's what we fished. Out fishing the gear users was a byproduct. Boat fishing was, and still is,trolling big water with leaded line or sinking fly line, but always with flies.

This raises another point that I have been wondering about; does fly line provide any benefits over using a bobber, bubble float or "bombarda" setup?

On face value, being able to launch flies with a spinning rod seems like the best of both worlds.

 

At a young age on the upper Columbia, I popped 3 bubble bobbers one day on rocks. My cousin was pissed, it was all he brought. He would put a dry caddis pattern behind them, was usually productive and easy for youngsters

 

My dad doesn't fly fish but likes to fish with me. When we go in my boat, I start him with spinning gear. . .fly and bubble or just a couple split shot on the line to get the fly down. Sometimes it works. Often it works marginally . . . but he gets frustrated if I'm hooking up regularly on fly gear that he can't handle. So we often end up trolling sinking lines so he can set the hook and reel 'em in.

My point is that if you take the time to become proficient with fly lines and stillwater techniques, you will generally be more successful than spin fishers.

 

Why do you think that is? The thing that stands out to me is that maybe it is impossible to get the same action, when using split shot or a bubble. There would definitely be a sort of hinge point and it seems reasonable to assume that has some impact. However, it could also be that your dad isn't applying the right action himself.

 

I can't think of a practical reason. I can catch as many on gear as a fly. Bait, lure, fly once your proficient with a technique I don't think it matters, but some days you know. I just prefer to fight a fish on a fly rod, and if your using your spring-n-pawl you get music.

 

Flyfishing presents forage-imitating flies at super realistic levels, whether it's a slow crawling or suspended leech, an emerging midge or caddis that lake fish can get way keyed onto, or various aquatic nymphs and emergers fished through their natural life stages. Usually getting dialed on this stuff will catch you more fish than throwing a spinner or soaking a worm.

Attractor flies will catch a load of fish when they're eating spinners, spoons and plugs.